Spending review shows they're all the same:

Tories - cuts, Lib Dems - cuts, Labour - cuts

Sean Figg

Tory cuts - Lib dems cuts - Labour cuts - spending review shows they're all the same, photo The Socialist issue 772 (Click to enlarge)

What is the point of the Labour Party? Its leaders support many of the cuts being made by the Tories and Liberals. Labour councils are the transmission belts for government cuts, working out how to implement them locally.

And when Tory Chancellor George Osborne announced another £11.5 billion in cuts and extending austerity past the next general election, rather than saying 'we will tear up this spending review if we win power', Labour promised to abide by it.

These cuts will hit workers and their families hardest... again! Osborne, and now Labour too, promise more cuts to welfare spending, cuts to all government departments, hundreds of thousands more public sector job cuts and threats to universal benefits.

Fightback

This is not a reflection of overwhelming support among the millions of workers, pensioners and young people in Britain for austerity. In fact huge opposition to cuts exists.

Witness the hundreds of thousands who have marched against cuts and the millions who participated in the 2011 public sector pension strikes.

We are told cuts are 'necessary'. However, the £351 billion-increase in the total wealth of the 1,000 richest people (that's 0.003% of the adult population) since Labour's election victory in 1997 indicates this is not the case. For starters, taxing the mega-rich and the tax-avoiding corporate giants would allow jobs and services to be expanded, not cut.

Stand against them

Yet Miliband tells all those fighting cuts and opposed to austerity: don't expect anything from us! That means the rest of us have to build an alternative and we have to turn to it urgently.

The Socialist Party is part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). TUSC is an electoral platform for all who want to challenge austerity, in reality planned poverty. At the RMT transport union's recent conference it voted to continue its full participation in TUSC.

TUSC is appealing for people to stand as candidates in the local council elections in May 2014 as part of a strategy of mass fightback, challenging all the keep-the-cuts parties.

TUSC appeals to all those who are suffering due to austerity, angry about losing their job, have had their hours or pay reduced, or benefits squeezed, to play a part and help.

Help build the TUSC challenge, and join the socialists.

Donate to the Socialist Party

Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.